“Kuro” is a narrative film made in collaboration with a group of street children from a shanty town near my mother’s village in rural North India. The film revolves around Kuro, an 11 year old beggar girl. She is a storyteller and dreamer. Forced to work to help support the family, Kuro does not go to school and spends her days begging on the streets with a gang of other raggedy kids. When an unlikely friendship blossoms with Preeta, an educated school girl from a higher caste, Kuro reveals her secret passion for storytelling. Her new friend betrays her when she steals her story and enters it into her school’s play writing competition. Faced with the complexity of an unlikely friendship, will Kuro stand up for herself or submit to her place in society?

    Through workshops with mentors and an original script, this film will be made with the street children and the community. Set within the social context of poverty, class, gender inequality and child labour, Kuro is ultimately a film of inspiration and triumph.